Cthulu Realms

Cthulu Realms

Darwin Kastle’s Cthulu Realms is a very Lovecrafty (obviously) deck building card game that heavily adapts the beauty of Dominion and the fun of combat card games and crafts a very clever take on the core mechanics. I like to call this process the Citzen Kane effect, when a game (which perfect for its time) may seem dated because newer games modernized it. Now, this isn’t Darwin Kastle’s first rodeo. We have Kastle to thank for Star Realms, another fantastic take on the Deck building mechanic. This time around, we have Kastle and TMG working together to push this new Realms game.

Cthulu Realms implements the trading card combat with the deck building mechanic we’ve seen in what I’ve mentioned above. Deal out a specified 10 card deck to each player along with a 5 card “store” in between you and your opponent(s). As you purchase cards to build your deck refill the center from the remaining cards in the game. Collect sanity, conjure, and locations to buff your deck as you take out your opponent’s sanity. Great strategic deck building along with the family friendly twist to the Cthulu mythos makes this a field day.

Final Thoughts

Cthulu Realms really has done something outstanding. This deck building combat card game recreates the feeling I get when I first picked up Pokemon cards, or when I was first introduced to analog gaming. It’s a little gem of a game with a good price, high replay value, and the Cthulu mythos.

You will like this game if you’re a fan of the cthulu mythos, high strategy, and a fan of deck building components.

You will not like this game when you don’t enjoy calculating multiple combinations of points, or not a fan of deck building.